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Restoring Monticello's Historic Blinds

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Restoring Monticello's Historic Blinds SPRING 2014 www.monticello.org VOLUME 25, NUMBER 1 Restoring Monticello’s Historic Blinds This spring, Monticello launched the Mountaintop Project, a multiyear effort to restore Monticello as Jefferson knew it, and to tell the stories of the people — enslaved and free — who lived and worked at Monticello. Visitors to Monticello will see historic Photograph of the West Front ca. late 1880s changes underway, including the restoration and by Rufus Holsinger shows what are believed preservation of Mulberry Row, the upper floors of the to be the original shutters still in place. house and Jefferson’s historic roadway system. Courtesy of the Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. ne of the first phases of in place. These photos were crucial at the U.S. Capitol to see Lenox’s 1817 the Mountaintop Project in helping Monticello restoration blinds that still survive today. These involves the restoration of experts determine essential details of original blinds, along with an example the house’s exterior blinds Jefferson’s design, including the num- made by Jefferson’s master joiner Oto more accurately represent those ber and spacing of the slats and the James Dinsmore for Montpelier, James that Jefferson intended and used. The size of the stock used for the frames. Madison’s home in Orange County, blinds at Monticello date to the early There was also a paper trail. Va., illuminated Jefferson’s 1804 20th century and have reached the end According to Jefferson’s 1804 memorandum note as never before. of their serviceable life. Most exterior memorandum on Venetian blinds to The ability to change the angle of blinds, or “shutters” on today’s build- be made by Peter Lenox, Jefferson the slats depending on the time of ings, are merely decorative. However, ordered Monticello’s Venetian blinds day and the season provided an extra in the 18th and early 19th centuries, with “laths moving on 2. pivots.” What measure of adjustment for controlling blinds were an essential feature of vir- Jefferson meant by “2. pivots” had light levels and air flow. They might tually every house. been a mystery until examples fitting have also provided some protection Photographs taken in the late 1880s this description were discovered. Most during summer thunderstorms while by Rufus Holsinger show what appear recently, in 2012, Monticello histori- still allowing windows to remain to be Jefferson’s original blinds still ans visited the National Statuary Hall open to take advantage of the cooling Monticello is a newsletter published twice yearly by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., the private, nonprofit corporation that has owned and operated Monticello since 1923. Its mission is preservation and education. Questions, comments and address changes should be directed to: Monticello Newsletter, P.O. Box 317, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902; [email protected]; or (434) 984-7529. SPRING 2014 breezes. The double-pivot system likely added stability to the movable slats, which are unusually wide. The Mountaintop Project is made possible by a transforma- tional contribution from David M. Rubenstein. Leading support was provided by Fritz and Claudine Kundrun, along with generous Mulberry Row gifts and grants from the National Building L Endowment for the Humanities, the Cabell Foundation, the Richard S. Kitchen Reynolds Foundation, the Garden Path Club of Virginia and additional d oa individuals, organizations and R en ch foundations. it Plan a visit to Monticello to see Mountaintop K Museum Shop historic changes underway. Learn more at www.monticello.org/ mountaintopproject, our behind- the-scenes blog featuring posts Building T from Monticello’s curators, archae- You are here ologists, restoration specialists and historians. An overview of the landscape changes anticipated from the Mountaintop Project. 2.
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